Korean War Hero Faces Being Homeless Thanks To Carrington Mortgage And Being Scammed By A Michigan Lawyer 

Large mortgage servicers like Carrington Mortgage seem to care more about their bottom line than our nation’s military. Soldiers and sailors are coming home from battle only to find they have no home. Some have been fortunate to sue their lender and be victorious. Yet, the vast majority of servicemembers and veterans haven’t been so lucky. 

Bob Chalice is a combat veteran of the Korean War. He was a Navy gunner during the Battle of Inchon. He also shot down Chinese and North Korean planes during Operation Wonsan.

You would think Carrington Mortgage would be honoring this man and his service. Nope. Carrington Mortgage and their lawyer, Randall Miller and Associates had other ideas. They decided to take Bob Chalice’s money and then foreclose on him and his family anyway. Miller is the brother of prominent Michigan Democratic politician Lisa Brown.

How Bob Chalice’s Nightmare With Carrington Mortgage Began

Our story begins during the infancy of the 2009 financial crisis. Bob Chalice’s daughter refinanced her home in Michigan with an FHA loan through the now-defunct Taylor, Bean, and Whitaker (TBW).

Carol Chalice had bought the home in rural Michigan 18 months prior to the TBW collapse as a getaway from her busy life. 

She soon found herself never being able to get away from her busy life as an American Airlines in Washington DC. 

Her parents, Bob and Sherri Chalice were growing tired of living in the Washington DC suburbs. They wanted something more laid back. Bob liked the idea of living in the country. So the family agreed that Bob and Sherri would live in Michigan.

Bob and Sherri moved to Carol’s Michigan home in time for Thanksgiving in 2014. They had asked their son, Bob, Jr. move in to help care for them. While the Chalices were preparing to move, Bank of America sold the loan to Carrington Mortgage. Yet, neither Bank of America or Carrington Mortgage notified Carol Chalice. 

Carol kept making her monthly payments to Bank of America. In March of 2015, she discovered Bank of America was no longer cashing her checks. The Chalices then began receiving threatening letters from Randall Miller’s office. They learned Carrington Mortgage had bought the loan from Bank of America six months prior. 

The Chalices reached a deal with Carrington Mortgage. Carrington would stop the Sheriff’s Sale if the Chalices wire transferred the unpaid $6,342.07 in payments to Carrington. Bob Chalice wired the funds to Carrington on 6/29/2015.

Several weeks later, Bob overnighted the July 2015 payment to Carrington Mortgage. Carrington returned the check claiming they would only accept certified funds because the loan was in default. A loan that Carrington claimed was current two weeks prior.

Randall Miller proceeded with the Sheriff’s Sale on July 16, 2015.

There May May Not Be A “P” In Lutz But There Sure Is One In Putz!

The Chalices knew they got double-crossed by Carrington Mortgage so they decided to fight. They contacted the Michigan Attorney General’s Office. Michigan AG Bill Schuette’s office referred them to attorney David Lutz (P53665).

Bob and Sherri Chalice signed a retainer with David Lutz and paid him $7,500. 

Lutz ranks with Anthony Lubkin in Flint as one of worst consumer lawyers in Michigan I have ever seen. He is either completely incompetent as an attorney or purposely scammed the Korean War veteran and his elderly wife.

Keep in mind, Bob and Sherri Chalice were not on the note or mortgage. Therefore, Bob and Sherri Chalice had no standing to sue Carrington.

Lutz filed the lawsuit against Carrington Mortgage on January 14, 2016. However, he filed it with Carol Chalice being named as the Plaintiff. 

Carol Chalice claims she never signed a retainer agreement with David Lutz. She claims Lutz represented her parents not her. Carol Chalice also alleges she never gave Lutz permission to sue Carrington Mortgage in her name.

To make matters worse, Lutz also failed to do any basic research on this file or request documents from Carrington Mortgage before filing the lawsuit. Carrington Mortgage would have to negotiate with the Chalices had Lutz done his job properly. I know because I have been in nearly a dozen settlements involving Carrington Mortgage. 

MERS Issues 

It is obvious Lutz failed to inspect the MERS database. He also didn’t bother to read the rules for MERS membership.

The MERS database showed that MERS had transferred the mortgage to Ginnie Mae prior to the 8/3/2012 mortgage assignment assigning the mortgage to Bank of America. This would make the transfer of the mortgage to Bank of America and any subsequent assignments invalid and a violation of Michigan law MCL 600.3204(3).

TBW’s bankruptcy would also call into question the legitimacy of the mortgage assignments.

TBW filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy (Case #09-07047) in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for Central Florida on 8/24/2009. Six months after Carol Chalice closed on her loan with them. 

The bankruptcy court approved TBW’s final liquidation plan on 7/21/2011. This approval effectively transferred all remaining assets of TBW to the Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Plan Trust. The Trust is not and was never a member of MERS. Hence, MERS had no authority to assign the mortgage because they had no agency relationship with the Trust.

The MERS rulebook states that members lose all membership privileges including transferring loans under the MERS name if the member is liquated as a result of a bankruptcy. The TBW liquidation happened 13 months prior the 8/3/2012 mortgage assignment. This would invalidate the mortgage assignment.

This argument works in Michigan because MFI-Miami lawyers have used it before.

Debt That Can’t Be Validated

David Lutz also failed to request a copy of the transaction history from Carrington Mortgage. He could have won this case on this issue alone. 

MFI-Miami requested and received Carol Chalice’s transaction history from Carrington Mortgage. The transaction history only shows payments going back to May of 2014. It also does not contain the transaction histories from Bank of America or TBW that should be in the file.

You can not validate a mortgage debt with nearly 70% of the transaction history missing. Lutz should know this. After all, it is just common sense.

Lutz did bring up the issue of Dual Tracking in his complaint. He argued that Carrington Mortgage told the Chalices that the $6,342.07 payment made by Bob and Sherri Chalice would bring the loan out of default and the payment of $1038.83 by Bob, Jr. in July would make the loan current. 

Lutz should have also known this was a futile argument. Michigan judges don’t care nor do they want to hear it. He should have filed a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The CFPB would have been all over Carrington Mortgage about this. Especially with Bob Chalice being a Korean War hero. 

Did David Lutz Scam A Korean War Hero?

Lutz didn’t argue the issues of MERS or debt validation because he could not get access to the information. He needed Carol Chalice’s authorization to get the information from Carrington and MERS.

Carol Chalice was not his client. She never signed a retainer or gave David Lutz authority to access her Carrington Mortgage file. Therefore, both Carrington Mortgage and their lawyers were under no obligation to give David Lutz any information regarding Carol Chalice’s mortgage. Lutz also had to know that Bob and Sherri Chalice did not have legal standing to fight the foreclosure before he took their $7,500. 

It appears this is why he filed the lawsuit in Carol Chalice’s name without Carol Chalice’s consent. He hoped Bob and Sherri wouldn’t find out or that they wouldn’t know any better with Carol Chalice living 1000 miles away in Virginia. 

The court threw out Lutz’s lawsuit. Now the Chalices are waiting for Carrington to evict them from the property or sell the property and let the new owners kick them out.